Category: Book Review

There are lots of perks to running a bookshop, obviously, the main one is running a bookshop, but close behind that is receiving free books. Sometimes they are excellent, often they are not, not because they are no good but because they are just not my cup of tea, and given that I don’t like tea this suggests just how picky I am. Books arrive in bright red padded envelopes, sparkly metallic boxes, with jigsaw puzzles, bookmarks, music tracks, booze and yesterday, chocolate.

The gifts generally tie into the book, Under a Pole Star, a tale of polar exploration, came with brandy and mintcake, A Year of Marvellous Ways, set in the Cornish countryside came with Slow Gin. Are these gifts shameless bribes from the publishers to make sure their book gets noticed? Absolutely. Is that a problem? Not in the slightest. I am quite capable of receiving gifts without feeling beholden. Personally, I think publishers know when they have a winner on their hands and get a little generous or maybe it does just give them the edge. If I receive five books and two have gifts I generally look at those first, if the book is good which it invariably is, my time is taken up and those other books, unless their blurb hits my sweetspot, get put in a pile and invariably forgotten about. So the gifts aren’t a bribe but they are a way of getting the book noticed.

All this leads me to a very pretty package that I received this week and the first thing I noticed was the bar of chocolate because although it was a specially commissioned bar, I recognised the packaging folds. This was a bar of chocolate made by Kernow Chocolate, a brand I am very familiar with as we have stocked them for years, wandered around their factory when they were operating out of farm barns and are a truly wonderful local brand. The book was set in Cornwall and the publishers / PR had chosen a local Cornish company. A very good start, it also helped that it was sea salt chocolate, our best seller!

I then gave the book a quick glance, teenage romance set in Cornwall, drifted past it, not my thing, and read the covering letter. Publisher and author both had great pedigrees, Puffin Club, Chicken House Publishing, Harper Collins, lots of very good names which again told me that the book was probably half way decent.

Anyway, I took some photos, ate the chocolate and promised to say nice things after a quick browse and maybe even stock it. Evening came and I didn’t fancy starting Guernica, it looked a bit gruelling so I figured teen romance would be the ticket. Oh boy, what a treat that I had nearly missed.

One Silver Summer by Rachel Hickman is the tale of an orphan and a prince, of ponies and a perfect Cornish summer. It really is the most gorgeously, warm romantic tale and I was hopelessly drawn in and hooked. I don’t want to say too much about it without spoiling some of the storylines but it really is worth getting, I can just see this book being passed all around the classroom. It made me think of Jilly Cooper and Daphne du Maurier whilst being wonderfully innocent. Despite making me cry it does have a happy ending and we will, of course, be stocking it!

I had been chatting with a friend online about books and he mentioned that I should walk over to Portholland to see some movie magic going on, he promised I would not be disappointed so Steve and I grabbed the dogs, parked at Porthluney and headed over the coast path toward Portholland. At any time of year this is a gorgeous walk, large open fields falling down to the cliff edges, the gorse is always in bloom and butterflies bask on the sun warmed path. The dogs ran around like loons and we gradually walked down the path and onto Portholland or so we thought. Hang on, goes Steve, since when was there a pub here? Forget the pub, says I, when did they get a post office and a Welsh one at that? and together we walked down towards a church and entire ancient graveyard that hadn’t existed a month ago. When Hollywood go to town, they take the village and turn it inside out, and then they place it in a whole other country.

The village of East Portholland had become the filming location for Tim Burton’s adaptation of the book Miss Peregrine Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Miss Peregrine’s is a magical tale of a special school for special children who are under attack from sinister creatures. It’s a great tale and is perfect for a Burton treatment.

Fake

That’s not Cornish!

This can never be faked 🙂

Fake

Genuine. I know but we often have square riggers in the bay.

Fake

Fake

We wandered through the village front which was basically an open set and took the dogs onto the beach to go jump in the waves. The dogs being dogs did their business and we scooped it up and headed back through the village to go home. As I walked through I spotted a bin and popped the dog bag in it. I had only taken two steps away when a charming man dashed up to me and asked me to remove said article. I must admit I looked confused as there was already rubbish in there, ah yes, says he, but that is prop rubbish in a prop bin. A chap was sitting on the wall by the bin grinned at me as if to confirm the gaffer’s assertion. By now I had managed to attract an audience, including a scowling Tim Burton, and had to return to the bin and retrieve my bag of poo. I walked back past the chap on the wall to share a grimace and a “what are Hollywood like?” eye roll when I suddenly realised that the chap was Mr Rupert Everett. I hadn’t thought I could be any more mortified, but there we are. Quite frankly I’d have felt less stupid if I tucked my skirt into my knickers and walked into Waitrose.

And with my brush with frame securely ruined I rejoined Steve who was crying with laughter further along the wall, gathered up the dogs and headed back along the cliffpath laughing all the way home.

The film will be released this September and should be worth a look. I shall be paying close attention to the bins!

Look at that gorse! That’s proper Cornish gorse.

Miss Peregrine’s is available in the shop for £7.99 and really is very good. Books two and three are also available.

Having successfully read book one in this trilogy I happily ploughed into book two but found myself back where I began. Stumbling through it and dissatisfied. I guess I really need to have my head in a certain place to enjoy Abercrombie, and at the moment I guess that I just don’t need that much snot in my life.

The Constant Princess – Philippa Gregory

Not awful but not great either. Didn’t finish or might have done. Can’t remember. Forgotten I’d read this until I saw it on my Instagram feed. (that was just two weeks ago)

The Moth Catcher – Ann Cleeves

Oh dear, I think my head is in the wrong place at the moment. This was OK but relied on some whopping coincidences to get the plot to work. Also a constant repetition of how fat Vera was got tiresome.

After the frustrating Shining Girls I went back to finish the Harkness trilogy. First time I read it I was disappointed as I didn’t think it was as good as the first two books. Now part of that is down to simple expectations. I read the first two as they came out and loved them so I had been desperately waiting for the concluding book and it just didn’t feel as good. This would be my second read so it was interesting to see what was wrong with it. Having enjoyed it more the second time I think its problem lay in having too much to fit in, too many characters and too many locations. Everyone was constantly running around the place with more and more story lines being introduced and would up. It could probably done with a fourth book or better editing. Either way I’m glad I read it again as it was better than I remembered by still not as good as books on and two.

Half a King – Joe Abercrombie

Having decided that The Book of Life was better than I remembered I returned to Half a King, a book I started last year but struggled with. I picked it up but this time was hooked straight away. I couldn’t even work out what I had found difficult. Abercrombie is a pretty gritty writer but this series is aimed at a younger market and was slightly toned down from his Best Served Cold books. That said it’s not exactly lacking violence or bodily functions. Standard fantasy themes but told with spit and sawdust.

The Giant Under the Snow – John Gordon

November was all about going back because this was a book that I had loved as a child and had always wanted to re-read but couldn’t remember the title, just the book cover and a vague sense of plot. Of course there is a huge risk of disappointment in going back to a childhood favourite but not on this occasion although there were a few surprises. The first was that it was set in Norfolk where I grew up, so obviously the descriptions of the city and the countryside resonated. The second was that the main protagonist was a girl, I’d have put money on it being a boy. I’m guessing that was the tomboy in me, that or I wasn’t used to reading books were the central character was female, I mostly read adventure and fantasy stories, books about school, ballet or horses just didn’t appeal. The next surprise was that it wasn’t the right book! Or at least it was but there is another book out there very similar and I read that as well and have managed to blend them in my memory. So that’s another book to track down, only now I don’t have a book cover either. The final surprise in tracking this down is that it apparently is about to be made into a film. Go figure. Anyway, it’s very good and hasn’t dated. A very good tale based on English folklore. Along the lines of Susan Cooper or Alan Gardner

Not sure why but I’ve ground to a halt with books to read, I think its just because I’m busy and don’t have the time to get into anything new. When I feel like this I like to reread old favourites, I know what I’m in for and I don’t have to concentrate. So that’s why I’ve returned to the Deborah Harkness trilogy. I love everything about it, its an academic girl, old manuscripts, magic, love, treachery and good writing and vampires in Oxford.

Shadow of Night – Deborah Harkness

What can I say but more of the same only this time we travel back in time to Elizabethan England, France and Prague. Harkness is first and foremost a historian and academic so her books are full of lovely historical references and anecdotes. I spent most of my time on-line looking up paintings and artefacts and listening to beautiful music.

The Shining Girls – Lauren Beukes

Change of tack and I saw this on a friends bookshelf. I had dismissed this originally as it had been touted by Richard and Judy and appeared to be an American crime book. Two things that don’t appeal. Now I know they don’t appeal to my friend either so on his recommendation I gave it a go. Beukes first two books were fantasy / horror; this I would consider a cross over. It started with a very promising concept. A serial killer wanders into a house that acts as a time portal from the 1920s to modern day he wanders back and forth through time killing girls that shine out to him and leaving mementos from previous kills at the next scene. He is unchallenged until one girl escapes and she tries to track her would be killer down. And here the story starts to stutter, it really should have worked better but for some reason it just doesn’t hang right. It becomes stilted, sometimes hopelessly over-complicated, other times really interesting thing aren’t even considered. Why do the girls shine? Why can he see them? What is the house about?

Beukes is clearly moving into John Connolly territory and is going to do well with great writing and imagination. I just think this book was a stumble, I’ll definitely try something else by her.

Gorgeous characters, clever writing veers between lyrical poetry and coarse vulgarity. There was something very beguiling about this book, the story was slow and troubling and at times heartbreaking. And in a shift as quick as a fish turning, the story would be fun of light and laughter.Very compelling and spot on descriptions of Cornish creeks and river life.

All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr

This took me forever to read which was surprising as it was full of tiny sections and I kept turning page after page. I think it was just that this was a very busy month for me and I just didn’t get many opportunities to pick up a book.All the Light We Cannot See is, quite simply, a very, very good book. I thought it was going to be dense, hard going and “worthy.” It really is none of those things despite the difficult subject manner. I fell in love with all the children in this book and have never read anything that shows how miserable life was for German children before the war and what an awful role and legacy their country prepared for them. I was also entranced by Marie Louise’s world of touch and sound. This is a beautiful book, go read it.

This book won pretty much every award last year. Turns out they were right. If you like Le Guin and M. Banks you are probably going to enjoy this. It’s always terrifying to read a hyped book as it’s bound to disappoint but this time you’ll be fine. Honest.

Abattoir Blues by Peter Robinson

Hmm, couldn’t find anything to read so grabbed this off the shelf. (Working in a bookshop has its advantages.) It was OK, I read all of it, liked the characters, if I’m honest I’m writing this a month later and I can’t remember the plot. So…

Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

I saw a recommendation of this by Emma Watson on Twitter so I ordered it knowing nothing about it but I still hadn’t found anything to read and was getting desperate. I started to read it and was horrified, it was so Walt Disney it was silly, I could practically hear the bluebirds singing on my shoulder. I put the book down. I was bored and had nothing to read so I decided that two pages wasn’t fair and tried a few more pages. By chapter three I had ordered the second book. It may have started Disney but it wasn’t long before someone shot the bluebirds.

Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Yep, book two was just as good and I tore through this one as well. The downside is that she is a new writer and this was hardback. Book three isn’t even on the horizon.

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

Sympathetic and funny story about a very clever man who sees the world in a very literal light. With the help of his wife he tries to come to terms with the idea of fatherhood. It’s very sweet and full of problems. There are lots of laughs but never at the central figure just the scenarios he finds himself in.

Well after a year of everyone telling me how good this book was I thought I had better read it. So I put it forward to the reading group as our next choice and thought no more about it until I started reading it on holiday. Now our reading group tends towards modern English literature, sometimes introspective and thoughtful, often very well well written. So my heart plummeted when in the first few pages we had a sex scene, a vicious murder, and a female potential terrorist. Gripping, pacey, exciting but hardly the stuff that Booker prizes are made of. That said it was great fun and I tore through it, a great thriller, albeit with a few plot holes you could drive a smallpox laden juggernaut through. When the book group got back together the vast majority enjoyed it for the exciting thriller it was and were prepared to overlook the literary weaknesses.

A Year of Reading Dangerously – Andy Miller

Well I picked this one up on a recommendation and was instantly hooked. It’s all about a journalist that makes a conscious decision to get back into reading and so he takes us through a year of his life in books. This really is a great read for anyone that loves books, he’s honest, funny, smart, sometimes wrong, sometimes right but always engaging. I loved it

Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

Another much hyped book but oh boy did this one stink. Apparently it had a killer plot twist, shame it was obvious within the first few chapters. Worse, it didn’t have a single redeeming character in it. not one. I wanted them all to get framed or murdered, they were so deeply unpleasant.nicely written, nice conceit but just too flawed.

Armada – Ernest Cline

This was about as disappointing as it gets. Derivative, trite, boring. Standing on its own it would have been awful but tragically it follows Ernest Cline’s debut novel Ready Player One, which was fabulous. Can’t even be bothered to give you a synopsis. Top tip, read Ready Player One. Never ever feel tempted to read this.

Foxglove Summer – Ben Aaronovitch

So I was feeling a bit anxious about this as I had been really looking forward to this. Rather like Armada. Plus two bad books on the trot always makes a reader feel nervous. Is that it. Has the magic of reading gone? Are there no more good books? Didn’t need to worry, this was great fun. As usual. PC Grant is assigned to the Met Office Division of the Occult. Everything is normal London plus wizards and river gods and the like. Author was toying with perceptions of race / colour. Kept me on my toes. Managed to tone it down just before it got annoying but it may jar for some.

The Winter Crown – Elizabeth Chadwick

I love historical fiction but I tend to avoid the more romantic novels and I really dislike the poorly researched books. I tried a Chadwick a few years ago and couldn’t get on with it. Picked up The Summer Queen by Chadwick last year as it was about Eleanor of Aquataine and really enjoyed it. This is book two and is continuing in the same vein. Eleanor is a great historical figure and is being treated with great insight, right or wrong, Chadwick is convincing and tells a good tale.

One from the book group. I’d never read any Mitford before but it’s fine. Nice and fluffy, nothing taxing. Nice clipped writing, easy story line.

Trinity, War of the Roses – Conn Iggulden

Well we are now into book two of the series and I still don’t think that Iggulden has picked a side. I know it’s not a black and white issue and both sides were at fault but when it comes to telling a story it helps to pick a side so that we can empathise more deeply with the book and the characters. As it is, whilst I am enjoy the story I haven’t engaged with the book yet. I found the Caesar series far more compelling.

Seven Wonders – Steven Saylor

More historical fiction but this was even less successful. It read like a collection of short repetitive stories. Pupil and teacher visit one of the seven wonders. Something goes wrong, they fix it. On to the next. I gave up after the third wonder. There was clearly a back story developing, that some agency was acting against the state of Rome but quite frankly I got bored of waiting. As short vignettes go they seemed fine, well researched and well written so I may yet try something else by this author but for me this was a miss.

The Blood Gospel – James Rollins

Haha. Bought whilst on the phone chatting to a friend half a bottle of wine down. Seemed like a good recommendation at the time. Then it arrived in the post and my heart sank. I am awful, I always judge books by their covers and this was awful, even worse it was a joint author, which I really can’t stand. So I started on it and spent the next few chapters thinking. Oh dear this isn’t very good, and then turning over the page. After a while I had to admit I was enjoying it. If I’m honest I couldn’t say why. Maybe I was waiting for Jesus to be revealed as a vampire hunter, or guessing who characters were, I bagged Rasputin and I think Lucifer is about to turn up in book two but I won’t be reading it. I liked elements, I had nothing else to read. I would read book two if I had nothing else but I won’t go out of my way.

Magician’s End – Raymond E Feist

June definitely was a damp squib for books and it ended on a flat splat. As much as I loved the first three books by Feist, and ironically the trilogy he co-authored with Janny Wurtz, all other books in this series disappointed. Not that I read all, I gave up. However, Magician was touted as the end of the series and I guess for old times sake I wanted to say goodbye to Pug and Tomas. One for old times sake then. By the way, the co-authored books that I apparently loathe? Servant of the Empire by Raymond E Feist and Janny Wurtz is absolutely excellent!

This is the most gorgeous tale of an American city girl falling in love with rural France. On holiday with her French husband in Provence they stumble across the home of a French resistance hero. They fall in love with it and in a moment of instant attraction they decide to up sticks from their cosmopolitan lifestyle and move to a small village. To make things more complicated Elizabeth discovers that she is pregnant and has to learn to cope with the French attitude to pregnancy and childhood. It’s a long way from her own New York, Jewish upbringing and you often find your heart going out to a lady sometimes out of her depth.

Throughout the book, as she struggles with sense of identity and the concerns of motherhood, she shares with us her love of food and the recipes she accumulates as she settles down into the community. This book is so full of warmth and love as well as joie de vie that it made a hugely refreshing change from the usual London couple renovating a house in Brittany. Sometimes when she writes I think that French are the foreigners, other times it is her own behaviour and observations that I find alien. Regardless, this is a very engaging book and all the recipes are the final icing on the cake.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

Following my recent mortification with the lovely Rupert Everett, I thought I should read the book that the film was being based on. It’s appealed for a while but you know, its one of those things that you never get round to. The book has an interesting print style, quite close to the margins, shiny white pages and lots of printed black and white photos throughout. I think that’s why it hasn’t appealed, it doesn’t quite feel right in the hand. Silly, huh?

Anyway, it’s quite good fun. Children with special powers live in a special home battling evil forces, all with a modern gothic patina. Frustratingly though as I got towards the end it became clear that the book was the first of a series. I hate that! Also I wasn’t that sure that I would bother to read the next book. Never a good sign.

Once, James Herbert

Never heard of this one so I was really looking forward to it. The production of the hardback is lush, lots of line drawings, embossed covers, although plain board boards. I love English ghost stories with a bit of horror thrown in. Gave up after only a few chapters. Oh it was so predictable. By chapter five I’d pretty much figured out the rest of the story and gave up!

Raising Steam, Terry Pratchett

So disappointed, I’ve been saving my last few unread Pratchett’s but this one is one that belongs to his group of repetitive formulae 🙁 I may pick it up again but for now it’s a miss.